posted on 07/25/2022 18:58
(Credit: Nelson Almeida/AFP)
The Ukrainian government has included former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) on a list of people accused of disseminating information deemed Russian propaganda during the war between the two countries. The document was released on July 14 by Ukraine’s Center for Combating Disinformation, a government agency created to challenge information released by Russia.
The list includes 78 figures from different countries and phrases considered proRussian by the Ukrainian government. Lula is the only Brazilian mentioned, along with two phrases attributed to the former president. According to the document, the PT declared that Russia should lead the “new world order.” However, there are no records attributing the speech to Lula.
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The second sentence comes from an interview that the former president gave to the American magazine Time, which appeared on May 4th this year. “Sometimes I see the President of Ukraine on TV, like he’s celebrating, getting a standing ovation from all the parliaments, you know? This guy is just as responsible as Putin because in a war there isn’t just one culprit.” Lula told the magazine.
Shortly after the interview was published, the Ukrainian embassy in Brazil criticized the former president’s attitude. “The embassy plans to formally request an audience of the esteemed former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with the Ukrainian chargé d’affaires in Brazil, Mr. Anatoliy Tkach, to clarify Ukraine’s position,” the embassy said in a statement.
Until the last update of this report, former President Lula had not positioned himself on the Ukrainian government’s list.
The Ukrainian document includes journalists, politicians, military officials and other figures whom the government has accused of spreading proRussian propaganda. Among those named are American journalist Glenn Greenwald, French politician Marine Le Pen and German businessman and activist Kim Dotcom.